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Excuse me, junior, but I was earning a living under the ocean while you were still in diapers. The Brownies is functional, proven, and they've sold a hell of a lot more of them than you have. J. Sink is a former Brownies employee. I don't know where you got the chip on your shoulder, but in the diving, submersible, ROV world, the six feet you dive to cleaning boat hulls is a freaking rain puddle. Please don't tell me you're one of those guys who wear a wristwatch the size of a turkey platter just so everyone in the bar knows you're a diver.

Interesting you think a compressor, hose and second stage is some kind of black magic, and that you're the only one here who knows what he's talking about.

Hit a nerve, did I? Funny how the guy who feels the need to make sure everybody else knows what an expert he is is the one accusing others of having a chip on their shoulder.

Look, I have nothing against commercially available hookah rigs. But your inference that a home-built unit is somehow going to be inferior or that to build one is a fool's errand is simply ludicrous.

And BTW? If I didn't have several tens of thousands of hours of hookah use under my belt, I might be offended by your misplaced attitude of smug superiority. But as it is, I find it to be fairly amusing.

02-08-2016 04:24 PM

2Gringos

Re: DIY - discussion on building a DIY hookah diving compressor

Excuse me, junior, but I was earning a living under the ocean while you were still in diapers. The Brownies is functional, proven, and they've sold a hell of a lot more of them than you have. J. Sink is a former Brownies employee. I don't know where you got the chip on your shoulder, but in the diving, submersible, ROV world, the six feet you dive to cleaning boat hulls is a freaking rain puddle. Please don't tell me you're one of those guys who wear a wristwatch the size of a turkey platter just so everyone in the bar knows you're a diver.

Interesting you think a compressor, hose and second stage is some kind of black magic, and that you're the only one here who knows what he's talking about.

I don't understand why anyone would want to cob up their own hookah when you can find functional, proven ones used cheap.

As someone who earns his living with one, I have "cobbed up" many hookah systems. I have also owned commercially available hookahs, including Brownie's. And I can tell you that I can easily put together a perfectly safe unit of equal or better quality than anything you can buy commercially and I can do it for less money. So while you may be satisfied with the cheap, plastic, toy-like air hose fittings provided with your expensive Brownie's hookah, others may not be.

02-08-2016 09:15 AM

2Gringos

Re: DIY - discussion on building a DIY hookah diving compressor

I've been reading this thread with some amazement in places. Astonishing how ignorant some people can choose to be. What's that old line about none is so blind as he who will not see?

Building a decent hookah is not rocket surgery, it's not even as complicated as building a reverse osmosis watermaker from off the shelf parts. But to do it safely and competently, I think the builder needs to understand the issues involved. Not only the diving physiology, but the potential for poisoning by contaminants.

I started diving at the ripe age of 12, taught by a Navy UDT friend of my dad's. He had a 12 year old son, too, and we both learned together on some surplus Healthways two-hose regulators and galvanized steel 72 tanks. Neither of us ever missed an episode of Sea Hunt, either.

I dove in my career, often. Installing oceanographic equipment all over the world. I've had all kinds of equipment over the years, including Unisuits, KMB-9 masks, and underwater comms ( Helle). I've dove under thick ice. I was fortunate in that when I needed to dive on a job, I typically had the budget to just buy a Mako compressor to fill my own tanks. I've been bent once in the fifty three years I've been diving, from staying just on the "no dc" limits, but then stupidly hopping on a jet to fly back from Long Island NY to Boston for a hot date on a Friday night. I have no idea how many thousand dives I've done. We didn't keep log books. I'll tell you other divers how old my cert is, NASDS. Remember them?

And for the past 11 years I've used a Brownie's Third Lung hookah. Taught a few people to dive, with three rules they need to understand. Do not hold your breath, do not pass your bubbles on the way up, and do not panic under any circumstances. You really don't need to know much more than that to dive on compressed air, for hull cleaning and even diving on reefs and shallow wrecks.

I don't understand why anyone would want to cob up their own hookah when you can find functional, proven ones used cheap. If you have the desire to play around with stuff like this, then build your own quadcopter. Build your own 3D printer ( I've done both) or build your own RO system.

But to take chances with a life support system is questionable. WHY do it?

02-07-2016 02:17 AM

Happy Hookah

Re: DIY - discussion on building a DIY hookah diving compressor

I use asbestos lined hose to keep the air from my mattress inflator nice & cool while diving. One problem though is I need a 2000 kg weight belt to get the mattress submerged.

10-08-2014 05:02 PM

denverd0n

Re: DIY - discussion on building a DIY hookah diving compressor

Well, I'm not going to lay out a complete tutorial on how to build one, but in essence a hookah system is pretty simple. You're just pumping air down to a diver, rather than having him carry it on his back. You have a compressor on the surface feeding a hose that goes down to the diver.

The critical parts, safety-wise, are an oil-less compressor, hose that is specifically rated for breathing through, and intake air that is not contaminated (position the intake so that it is not sucking exhaust, filter it properly). The critical thing for the user to know is that you ARE breathing compressed air (despite what sandboy has said) and that for that reason you really MUST get proper training (usually by taking a SCUBA class).

10-08-2014 03:10 PM

Andrew65

Re: DIY - discussion on building a DIY hookah diving compressor

Fair enough. No worries.

10-08-2014 03:08 PM

Fstbttms

Re: DIY - discussion on building a DIY hookah diving compressor

I don't have the time or inclination to give you a tutorial on hookahs. Do your own legwork. I suggest you try looking at the web sites of hookah sellers. You'll find that there is nothing special about them.

Being a SCUBA instructor clearly doesn't make one an expert on building hookah rigs. Anybody reading this is 100% capable of putting together a safe, reliable hookah unit that is essentially identical to anything commercially available to recreational divers. Hookahs are not high-tech pieces of equipment that require special knowledge to build. They are simple devices and even the most expensive of them are built of off-the-shelf components that are readily available to you and me.

If I've come acrossed trying to sound an expert because I have my instructor card, it wasn't my intention. I like a good dumpster dive for discarded items I can use on my boat, but I just feel DIYing certain stuff isn't worth the risk.

Ok, you've got my attention. This thread has gone a lot of different ways (as usual on SN ) and reading your qualifications, would respectfully hear how you would build one.

How would you build one (parts and details please), thus summarizing this thread and pulling it together for the DIYer?

Being a dive instructor of 20+ years, it scares me to think you DIYers can beat the odds and just build one.

Being a SCUBA instructor clearly doesn't make one an expert on building hookah rigs. Anybody reading this is 100% capable of putting together a safe, reliable hookah unit that is essentially identical to anything commercially available to recreational divers. Hookahs are not high-tech pieces of equipment that require special knowledge to build. They are simple devices and even the most expensive of them are built of off-the-shelf components that are readily available to you and me.

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